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Any One For Ice-Cream? Leadership At Udderlicious

Leadership is a quality that just about any job paying a reasonable salary requires, but employers can be so vague about what it means. Yesterday I was facilitating a networking event for Islington Chamber of Commerce’s Women In Business club. The topic was Personal Leadership.

We took over a family-owned business – an ice-cream parlour (Udderlicious, 187 Upper Street if you go near Islington in London, England), which has only been open for 2 months. As facilitator, I asked the owners to talk about their journey to opening the shop and the challengers they face, to see what lessons could be learned.

There were three particular attitudes and behaviours they talked about which for me epitomise good leadership.

1. Playing to staff’s strengths and encouraging them to develop. One of their staff is a real people person, so they actively encourage him to come out from behind the counter and meet and greet customers, and take their orders. The customers love him, and he loves doing it, so everyone has a great experience.

2. Getting involved when everyone’s back is against the wall. Delegation is an important skill, but there are times when you all have to turn your hand to all manner of unsavoury or menial activities. If the toilets need cleaning, and you’re the one not doing anything, then toilets it is! And it’s important to know when to stop mucking in, and to step back to ensure that the strategic side of things is also being attended to.

3. Passion for the product and what they do. Udderlicious is unique, because they make the ice-cream themselves, on the premises (and it’s delicious). When they talk about what they are doing you can hear the enthusiasm, excitement and belief in what they are doing, which, for a customer is so reassuring. It rubs off. I found myself leaving there as a passionate advocate of what they are doing. You get such a strong sense that this is important to them, and that they want their customers to have a great experience. They also do everything they can to source all their supplies (including the furniture) locally, which is another great selling point.

When you’re an employee, it’s not always easy to have that passion. Nor do you necessarily have the opportunity to bring on other people. However, if you can’t demonstrate passion, a willingness to get involved and a generosity of spirit, you’re likely to get left behind. And if the organisation constrains you so much that the joy has gone out of your working week, then it’s worth considering what price you are paying in emotional terms to stay there.

Are You Too Old To Be An Entrepreneur (by Neil Asher)

Written by The Career Success Doctor

One of the options for anyone wanting to change career is to be an entrepreneur. One of the things that stops people from even thinking about becoming an entrepreneur is the idea that it’s a young person’s game, that anyone over 30 has no chance. A couple of weeks ago I was at an internet marketing seminar where I swear the average age was about 60. They clearly thought you could become an entrepreneur later on in life.

Yesterday, this great email arrived in my inbox from one of my mentors, Neil Asher. Neil has a Digital Marketing Agency, called RoarLocal. They do an amazing job on the digital marketing front, with a powerful command of the best ways to attract traffic and sell your wares, and if you’re looking for help in that department, they are well worth talking to, or at least following. Neil is a living, breathing, example of career success as an entrepreneur. He has spent a lot of time studying what works in business, both in terms of practical strategies and mindset. This one is all about mindset.

So let’s hear it from Mr Asher. It’s a great read.

“Last week I turned 42

As usual I spent the day with family and friends  and lay awake at night contemplating life and my  place in it.

This habitual philosophising has become a  hallmark of my birthdays and I’ve found it an  interesting intellectual exercise.

This time however I got to thinking about getting  older and being an entrepreneur as I age.

I know many of my friends who work in jobs have  thought about breaking free and starting their  own business and so I thought I’d share some  insights into slaying the “I’m too old to start a  business” dragon that lurks in us all.

First up, for many of us (myself included) the first thing we’ll try is rational thought, we’ll try and  reason with ourselves.

Just know that this will NEVER work…

Shrinks spend years with patients trying to get them to be more rational about their lives  with little effect.

Instead, know that the super ego inside your head is the scolding parent’s voice, or the dark  asshole living inside you who refuses to allow you to claim victory for anything (or to ever feel pretty, or competent, or anything above the pure shame  of being a flawed, horrible person).

That’s the voice that rises in volume late at night  and during times of self doubt… and yes, it really  is trying to crush your spirit.

Nobody truly understands why our “brain  software” has this quirk in it. Sociopaths don’t  have it, which is how they rise so quickly to  powerful positions in business, politics and life.

They’re operating with shameless (and often  ethical-less) efficiency, while the good people  around them struggle with feelings of inadequacy  and shame.

You can’t “think” your way around this voice. You  gotta just roll up your sleeves and deal with it like  you would a home invader — with viciousness  and ruthless counter-moves.

Step One: Identify the voice, separate it from the  other random chatter in your head, and give it  form — I imagine mine as a snake in a suit, a truly  despicable creature who’s just trying to ruin  things. Giving the voice a “shape” makes it easier  for the following steps.

Step Two: Confront the little bastard. This is a  Jungian tactic for nightmares (“turn and face  what’s chasing you”) that understands how our  fears shrivel under close inspection. Turn to your  invading snake (or whatever form you’ve made  the voice into) and say, quote: “Shut the fuck up!”  In your mind’s eye, move into the snake’s space  and back the little creep up into the wall.

Step Three: Now imagine either a closed door or  a big soundproof box. Force Mr Snake into it, and  lock it up. Don’t even imagine a muffled sound  coming out — he’s completely locked away, out  of sight and mind.

Step Four: Get on with your pursuit of specific  goals.

Sounds too simple to work, doesn’t it. Get over  your doubts — this is professional-level brain  management. (And yes, it works with nightmares,  too.)

You won’t banish your fears forever — they’ll get  out and try to slip into the conversation again  tomorrow, or even an hour later. Doesn’t matter  — you simply go through the process again. And again. And again, as many times as you  need to until his absences get longer and his  reappearances more brief.

It’s just a voice. A nasty voice that knows how to  wound you, but plays no proactive role in your  pursuit of a good life.

You do not “risk” any damage to yourself  whatsoever by doing all this. You won’t turn into a  sociopath (and you wouldn’t even need to know  about this process if you were one already, as  you wouldn’t even HAVE Mr Snake hanging  around in the first place).

He’s not performing some secret vital function for you — he’s pure non-essential crap, like crumbs  in your keyboard that play no positive role, yet  show up frequently (especially if you eat at your  desk, like most entrepreneurs do), and just need  to be pounded out of the keys occasionally so  you can get back to your work without the keys sticking.

I give you permission to use this tactic  immediately. It works every time. You may need  to get good at it, and Mr Snake may be better  than you at escaping right now, but you can  overcome that with a dedicated effort.

Good luck.

Oh, and the idea that there is some sort of  benchmark age you should quit trying to become  an entrepreneur is nonsense. Only in the rise of  Hollywood over the last century has the idea that being young is essential to being creative taken  hold. It’s bullshit. Older and wiser beats younger  and dumber every time. The ONLY thing youth  wins at is stuff that requires quick physical recovery or lack of regular sleep.

Extra Tip: Sleep is your friend. When I get sleep  deprived, I feel actual depression coming on. A quick nap obliterates it… which means the “down”  feeling was nothing more than my internal system  feeling drained. Sleep conquers almost all the ills  short of serious sickness.

Now get out and enjoy your weekend!

Neil”

If you want to know more about how to have a career success mindset,

check out my ebook, How To Have A Career That Really Works For You.

Is Having Your Own Business A Viable Career: Part 2

Written by The Career Success Doctor

In part 1 of ‘Is Having Your Own Business A Viable Career’, I talked about how easy it can be to set up a business these days for very little money. I also mentioned that it’s important to have the right mindset. If you do best when someone is telling you what they want done, or if it’s important that you have a weekly or monthly salary coming in as regular as a clockwork, then maybe you’re better off being an employee.

In this post, I’m going to talk more about mindset. In the next part, I’ll give you more information about the free or nearly free tools that are out there.

As I’ve already said, your mindset is critical to your success. In my opinion there are 3 parts to this. Firstly, do you have an entrepreneurial mindset? Secondly, do you understand the business of being in business and thirdly, what is it you really want to do with your life?

Entrepreneurial Mindset

If making money is your number 1 objective, then it’s important to distinguish between trading time for money, and being an entrepreneurial woman. Trading time for money is when you sell a service (for example an hour’s coaching, or a home-baked cake) for money. It requires your physical presence or effort, and so your time. The advantage is independence; you are your own boss. The disadvantage, as a self-employed person, is that if you’re sick, or you want to take a holiday, you don’t get paid. At the beginning you are likely to be doing everything in the business yourself, which can get in the way of serving your customers, and it can be very lonely.

If you set your fees or prices at a high enough rate, you have a chance of making a comfortable living. The problem is that most of us don’t set our fees high enough, particularly women. As women, we are notorious for undervaluing ourselves, so there is a common pattern where the business never really pays for itself, and remains little more than a hobby. If your target market is people who buy cheap, you’re going to have to sell a lot of time or product or services to make ends meet. Economics 101 – the lower the price, the more you have to sell in order to make a profit.

The entrepreneur sees the business as a business, and looks for ways to reduce the money-for-time activities, and increase income from other sources. That’s why most of the leading gurus on personal development, internet marketing, investing and so-forth have programmes you can buy, which provide video/audio/slides/pdfs and, increasingly, membership of a private facebook group. You have access to the knowledge without necessarily spending any time with the expert.

Of course, the true entrepreneur doesn’t limit herself. She makes the business grow to international super-stardom (think Martha Lane-Fox and lastminute.com, or Sara Blakely, founder of Spanx), she becomes a serial entrepreneur like Marcia Kilgore (Bliss, Soap and Glory, Fitflops), or she becomes an investor in a portfolio of businesses (think Deborah Meaden from Dragon’s Den ).

The Business Of Being In Business

It’s not necessary to know all about business before setting up your own, as Sara Blakely demonstrates, but some knowledge of what it takes to run a business does help. At the very least, you need to understand how money works: money in minus money out equals profit, but did you remember to pay yourself along the way? You also need some understanding of marketing, and you definitely need to understand the basic legal and financial requirements of your country and your industry. For example, if you are planning to sell cooked food, you have to be aware of food hygiene regulations in your area.

You can find much of the information you need by googling it. Unfortunately, in the UK, you have to dig around in various places for information on business start-ups, starting with HM Customs and Excise (home of our tax-collecting Inland Revenue). Again in UK, local libraries can be a mine of information, particularly if you live in a large metropolitan area with a business library, or near a local library with a good business section. These days, it’s much harder to find funding for start ups, but in the main the internet has reduced start-up costs dramatically, particularly when it comes to sales and marketing. It’s also made it a lot easier to source physical product (just check out alibaba for the fun of it), and organising distribution of physical items, for example by using ‘dropshipping’ companies.

In part 1, I talked about my friend and mentor Nicola Cairncross, who has created a range of excellent business information products, including an audio version of her original book, The Money Gym. Lawyers and accountants will often offer an initial free consultation, and local Chambers of Commerce and business networking groups often offer free or low cost seminars. There’s a lot that is really practical common-sense, and there’s a lot more you can learn by watching programmes such as The Apprentice or Dragon’s Den and reading some good business books. See our resources page for some suggestions.

What Do You Want To Do With Your Life?

In many ways this is the most important part of the mindset jigsaw puzzle. If your only reason for wanting to start your own business is because you hate your current job, you may find you don’t have the motivation to sustain it. Having your own business requires passion, or at the very least, genuine interest on your part. When you have passion, it makes it so much easier to sell your ideas, products and services.

My first job after University was as a sales rep for Esso. I didn’t like the company and didn’t think their products were any better than those of Shell, BP or Castrol. They certainly weren’t any cheaper! The result was, I found it hell to sell, and left after 2 years by mutual agreement. When I moved on, and started to sell services I believed in, it all became so much easier.

When you have a vision for yourself, it becomes so much easier to focus your efforts. It doesn’t have to be for ever: serial entrepreneurs build up their businesses and then sell them for a healthy reward, but while they are building the business, they know where to put their focus and effort. If you’re having problems creating a vision for yourself, then take a look at ‘How To Have A Career That Really Works For You‘ where I’ve included a number of different exercises to help you design your future.

In Part 3 I’ll be giving more detail on those free or almost free resources. Meantime, feel free to leave your comments in the comments box below this post.

Should Control Freaks Be Allowed To Be Managers?

Written by The Career Success Doctor

Once upon a time I was a control freak. I openly admit it now, although back then I was shocked when a good friend announced the fact to a group of strangers – and not in a jokey way. I had no idea that I was being controlling.

It’s easy to look around for people to blame, but I do thin part of my problem was that all the managers I had ever had,with one exception, had been of the command and control variety. When I started at Esso, just as Margaret Thatcher was coming to power, we talked about management of organisations, not leadership, and management meant getting people to do stuff.

Back then managers weren’t well educated in things managerial: there was a fair bit of research done at the time on how little management education British managers had.The idea that the best way to get people to perform well was to take a coaching approach hand’t even been thought of. Back then, control freakery was tolerated in managers, as was industrial bullying.

Fortunately things have changed, both for me personally and for industry as a whole. I’ve learned to give away control (it’s called delegation), and industry is much more aware of the fact that people are at their best when you inspire them, rather than push them relentlessly.

Yet there are still control freaks around in positions of power. From my perspective, this approach stems from a combination of poor role models and concealed fear. Most of the control freaks I have coached are secretly afraid that people will find out that they don’t really know what they are doing, or they are frightened of losing their job or getting demoted for failure. That’s the ones who can even see that they are control freaks.

Of course the ability to take control of a situation is important. Disorder tends to confuse people, and it’s well known in psychological circles that people instinctively look for a leader. If you are managing a group of people, and you’re not the leader, someone else is going to do the job for you. At the same time, you can lead successfully without controlling the living daylights out of those you are managing.

The tendency to over-control isn’t limited to men, either. I’ve only ever had one female boss, and she was OK, at least as far as the whole control question is concerned. However, I’ve coached female bosses who were inclined that way, and I have heard horror stories both from my coaching clients, and from friends about women who were clearly out of their comfort zone and their area of competence.

The remedy does lie in good education -and it’s one of the issues where personal coaching can really help. Control freaks rarely want to share their deepest insecurities in group situations.

So should control freaks be managers? In an ideal world, no. They won’t get the best out of people, and while they might get results in the short term, in the longer term, people will either vote with their feet and leave, or start to under perform or find ways to undermine the boss. At the same time, over-controlling managers need help – both to improve their own performance as a leader, and to create a better working environment for their staff.

As for me, my attitude nowadays is that I’m glad there are control freaks around clamouring for responsibility, so I don’t have to. I’m happy to step up when asked, and I’m a far better leader now I’ve got over this need to feel in control. This in turn comes from knowing who I am, and losing my insecurities about not being good enough. But control freaks have their place, and I am always happy to hand over to someone who enjoys putting order into the more mundane aspects of organisational life that are essential for their smooth operation.

Is Having Your Own Business A Viable Career?

Written by The Career Success Doctor

Recently, a number of women who have asked for a Career Quickstart conversation with me have mentioned, almost in passing, that they would one to start up their own business, but ‘can’t afford to do it’. Which prompted me to write a few words about how you can set up your own business, and become an entrepreneur, in an affordable way. This is Part 1.

Now there is a caveat. It does take a particular mindset to run your own business. I’ve been doing it for 15 years, and have spent a lot of the rest of my life either advising small businesses or working in them, so I know this from firsthand experience. You need discipline, you need to be what the job adverts cal a ‘self starter’ – so you get on with things without being asked, with focus, and without anyone looking over your shoulder. It can be quite lonely, so if your job is your social life, you need to think about that. You also need to be willing to take some risks. There is no such thing as a risk free business. But there are ways to manage and reduce the risks.

One trap that many new business owners fall into is that of simply trading time for money. So it’s still a job, but you’re the one paying your wages, your national insurance your pension, your holiday pay and so forth. And a lot of small businesses owners don’t make enough to pay themselves wages.

There is also an issue of knowledge/expertise. The key lies in the word ‘business’. When you set up your own business you need to acquire a business brain. You need to get a grip on finance, marketing, selling, product acquisition (buy it or create it yourself?), customer service, relevant legal issues, and possibly: distribution and logistics, manufacturing, employment and people management.

Against this, running your own business has huge advantages like the freedom to choose what, when and with whom you work (can be a stone round your neck if you don’t control it), minimal commuting, you can fit it round your family (although you may have to work late into the evening or get up extra early) and you can often spend the entire day working in your pyjamas! There is the potential to make a lot more than you ever did as a wage-slave.

Given These Challenges, Can I Still Set Up A Business?

The short answer is, ‘yes, of course’. But let’s look at this in a bit more detail.

The first question is: why do you want to go into business? Are you in business because you have a passion about the thing you are in business to sell ( with me that’s helping people have successful and happy careers and lives)? Or are you in business because you’re passionate about business itself. I happen to be interested in business, and extremely knowledgeable about it, but I am probably not passionate about it for its own sake.

If your passion is business, you can create businesses to do anything. If your passion is – for example – knitting, and you want to sell your knit ware, then it’s going to be a knitware business, at least to start with. If you read the gurus of internet marketing, many of them will tell you to make your first business something you are passionate about. Certainly this works for some people, but it increases the risk that you will simply trade time for money, and never really make your business grow.

But Jane, I Haven’t Got The Money To Set Up My Own Business

You don’t need loads of money to set up your own business online. Bricks and mortar is a different question, however. You can set up a website for nothing more than the cost of your time, although if you can afford $10 a month, it’s worth doing so to have a genuinely independent site that is truly your own. If you run it using WordPress, the software to build it is free too. Depending on what you want to offer, you can create reports, ‘how to’ videos using your iPhone, android or other smart phone, audios/podcasts and sell all of these to your market. In fact, you don’t even need a website to do a lot of this. You need a bank account, but most of us have one of those, that you can link to paypal. Paypal don’t charge you for that – they take a percentage cut off whatever you sell.

You can have free Facebook business pages, free Twitter, free LinkedIn (especially if you are selling business to business), free Google +, free Youtube, and free software to enable you to keep in touch with anyone who might be a little bit interested in what you are offering. The ‘free’ list is a long one – so long, that I recently watched a video of a guy who set up an online business for $25, including paying for a product created by someone else that he planned to promote in return for a commission. That’s an extreme example, but you get my point.

You can make money by selling other people’s products, and getting paid a commission for doing so. No product creation involved, and you don’t even have to pay for the products. You can become an amazon associate, and get paid a (small) commission for things you recommend. You can buy and sell on ebay. I know a couple of people who have day jobs, and have set up ebay stores. You can set up your own ‘store’ where you promote other people’s goods, and earn a commission, without ever having to touch the products you are selling. You can promote products ethically – I only EVER promote products from people I know and respect, and very often I have already bought the product myself, and liked it.

And you can do all this while still working at the day job, or to fit around the family.

You don’t even need vast amounts of technical knowledge. The less technical knowledge you have, the longer it will take to learn the skills you need, although if you have tame teenagers available this can be a real bonus. You can also hire people for incredibly small amounts of money.

An internet marketer friend of mine once surveyed his high-earning internet marketing contacts to ask them what they’d do if they were starting from scratch and needed to earn $1000 in 30 days. The top answer was selling porn! That industry is way ahead of the game in internet marketing terms. Erotica is also doing very well in the Kindle and book department – think Fifty Shades Of Grey. Other answers included creating webinars to sell for $67+, and selling one very high value product as an affiliate.

In Part 2, I’ll be talking in more detail about where and how you can get these free resources to set up your own business. Truth is, though, the first step is to get into the right mind, and I’ll be talking more about THAT in part 2, too.

Meantime, if you want to get started on the path to wealth, checkout this offering from my friend and long-standing mentor, Nicola Cairncross. (Please note, this link has changed since I first posted this article). Nicola has an abundance of experience and success in the field of wealth creation and internet marketing (i.e. having your own business online). The product she’s offering here is all about how to manage your money successfully and start creating real wealth. It’s a snip at $9.95. When you buy it, you’ll also get the chance to sign up for her Internet Marketing Bootcamp: a seriously good introduction to the whole business of building an online business.

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